Cyclone storm 'Helen' likely to make landfall at Nellore district of south coastal AP around Thursday night

A month after facing cyclone Phailin, Andhra Pradesh is gearing up for yet another storm.

Cyclonic storm ‘Helen’, currently situated over the Bay of Bengal, is likely to make landfall at Kavali in Nellore district of south coastal Andhra Pradesh around Thursday night, with wind speed of up to 120 kmph.

Nellore, Prakasam, Guntur and Krishna districts in south coastal Andhra Pradesh are expected to be worst hit by the cyclone. A storm surge of about 1-1.5m expected at the time of landfall is likely to inundate low lying areas.

The cyclone, currently 430 kilometre east of Kavali, 470 km east-northeast of Chennai, 320 km east-southeast of Machilipatnam and 290 km south-southeast of Vishakhapatnam, is expected to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm in the next 24 hours and bring heavy to very heavy rainfall in coastal Andhra Pradesh and north coastal Tamil Nadu from tonight.

The weather department has predicted that winds speed up to 65 kmph would prevail along and off north Andhra Pradesh coast along with north Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts from tonight.

Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea as a precaution.

On October 12, Phailin, a very severe cyclonic storm, said to be the second strongest after the disastrous super-cyclone of 1999, struck the Odisha coast, bringing in its wake torrential rains and wind speeds of over 200 kmph in the state and in the neighbouring north coastal Andhra Pradesh. The cyclone flattened tens of thousands of thatched homes, destroyed more than five lakh hectares of crops, knocked out power lines and claimed 23 lives, most of them in Odisha.